Schools to employ full time accountants

THE Government will soon employ full time accountants at public schools countrywide to curb mismanagement of funds. This comes at a time when school heads have complained about alleged victimisation by internal auditors.

Speaking at the National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) annual conference here, school heads said audits and inspections being carried out in schools were misplaced and only meant to victimise them.

They called for an end to the process. The school heads said the forensic reports disgraced them as auditors leak them to the media before concerned parties are even made aware of them.

Said one headmaster: "They should audit themselves before they audit schools. If there are people to be audited, it's Ministers and Permanent Secretaries because they are the ones squandering funds."

In response, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora said the government was working on employing accountants to oversee management of funds in schools.

"The Ministry is working on a school financing policy which will direct management of funds. We need a school accountant to handle all money matters. We can have an accountant for each school and if we can't afford then maybe have one to take charge of two or three schools," he said.

Dr Dokora said his Ministry was inundated with allegations of funds embezzlement and financial mismanagement, a menace he said needed to be stopped forthwith. "That's self-defeating . . . if we have accountants you will remain with your rightful professional task of managing the school. Don't be afraid of an audit if you didn't abuse school funds," said Dr Dokora.

He said the issue was proposed but set aside because Treasury could not avail money to pay the accountants.

However, Dr Dokora said the idea had not been abandoned as he is still considering it. Nash president Mr Johnson Madhuku on Wednesday said some members had even committed suicide because of trauma as a result of being disgraced by auditors and inspectors. Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (Zimta) chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu encouraged school heads to avail themselves for audits so as to "clear skeletons from their cupboards".

"Let's allow the audit process but it must be professional. It has to be systematic, how on earth do you expect a mere headmaster with a degree in sociology to manage accounts books?" he said.

Turning to the conference, whose theme is: "The new curriculum: Opportunities and challenges", Dr Dokora said the new curriculum is irreversible. "We can't go on a reverse gear now because pilot testing for agriculture is being done as we speak on 10 selected schools and a report will be coming soon," added Dr Dokora.

He called on schools to start working on operationalising the new curriculum next year when it enters its second phase. The process started last year with the inception of the concept and it is currently being piloted as it aims to develop learners that are positive and can see opportunities through acquiring lifelong skills.

Some of the new subjects include Indigenous Languages, Visual and Performing Arts, Physical Education and Mass Displays, Family and Heritage Studies, Maths and Science at infants and Science and Technology at junior level.

The conference ended on Friday.